In China, life is now controlled through an official coronavirus fitness app on almost everyone’s smartphones. More important than a passport, less public than a photo, the app makes a decision about who can go where. This can force other people to cancel trips, retire to isolation, or even seek remedy in the hospital.
Not having it is not a viable option for most people in China. Without it, you can’t even go to work.
Once downloaded, the software works like a traffic light: green stands for “safe COVID” and allows the holder to access all buildings, add grocery stores and offices.
It is unclear when this green prestige could turn yellow. The app tracks everyone’s movements. It sends data on where they’ve been, and with whom, to China’s Big Brother-style National Health Authority.
Simply sitting in a café where, unbeknownst to you, a proven case of COVID-19 left for a latte causes the app to turn yellow.
If this happens, you are added to a long list of other people online for imaginable mandatory home isolation, or even for quarantine in a government-run facility. Not if, and, or but.
It’s the best tool for restricting private liberty, and while the government swears it’s only being used for the spread of the coronavirus, it’s open to abuse.
When a bank in Central China’s Henan recently ran into technical issues, consumers found they couldn’t withdraw their cash online. Naturally, many turned to the bank for answers. According to state media, the local government has turned fitness apps from angry consumers. red to keep them out.
After the story made headlines, the local government on Wednesday punished five people for intentionally falsifying the fitness codes of more than 1,000 citizens.
This may sound like justice, but China’s record of punishing corrupt officials is not good. Often, they disappear from public view for a while, but then reappear in other works.
History also shows that the Chinese fitness app, now universally installed and accepted, can be reused by citizens for other purposes.
So how long does China’s leaders be tempted?